Brief Biographical Details
George Pinwell has born in Wycombe, London, on 26 December 1842. Pinwell's background was working class: his father was a builder, and the artist's first employment was as a designer producing templates for a firm of embroiderers. However, he quickly established himself in the field of graphic art. By the mid 1860s he was working for a variety of periodicals — notably Good Words and Once a Week — and also produced distinguished work for children, and for a series of illustrated gift books. He built a highly effective relationship with the Dalziels, producing his most popular work, Dalziels' Illustrated Goldsmith, in 1865. Pinwell was regarded by contemporaries as one of the outstanding illustrators of his time, but his potential was never entirely realized. Burdened by an unspecified depressive illness, he died prematurely at the age of thirty three.
Commentary
- Introduction
- George Pinwell and wood-engraving: a previously unpublished letter
- Social Commentaries of the 1860s: from Dickens to the Idyllic School of Illustration
Works
- The Shadow
- By the Dove-cot
- The Island Bee
- At the Threshold
- Bridget Dally's Change
- The Gang Children
- Poverty’s Dwelling
- Other People's Windows
- A Tradition of Black Rock
- Leaving the Morgue
- The City Personage
- This is a sweet spot, ain't it? A lovely spot!
- Time and His Wife
Bibliography
Houfe, Simon. The Dictionary of Nineteenth Century British Book Illustrators. Woodbridge: Atnique Collectors' Club, 1978; revised ed., 1996.
Goldman, Paul. Victorian Illustration: The Pre-Raphaelites, the Idyllic School and the High Victorians. Aldershot: Scolar, 1996.
Reid, Forrest. Illustrators of the Eighteen Sixties. 1928; reprint, New York: Dover, 1975.
Last modified 26 April 2019